I also had a null pointer exception. The solution is to set whatever MySql Connector you have to the class path. Tomcat 6.0 does not have the setclasspath.bat so you need to configure the classpath manually. Make sure to copy the MySqlConnector.jar file into your tomcat lib folder and include this also into your class path. I also had the .jar file(s) inside my tomcat\webapp\<projectname>\WEB-INF\lib folder just in case.